Zak Crawley shone under the lights at Headingley to make an unbeaten 63 and lead Andrew Flintoff’s Northern Superchargers to an assured eight-wicket win over Welsh Fire.
Match Analysis
The England man hit five fours and four sixes across his enterprising 37-ball stay at the crease to see the Superchargers to a brace of home wins on their opening matchday of The Hundred, following the women’s team’s win earlier in the day.
Crawley was accompanied by captain and fellow England star Brook to hit the winning runs at the end, book-ending a day that started with Jonny Bairstow and Steve Smith putting on 62 for the opening wicket for Welsh Fire.
The pair were booed on their way to the crease but they looked as if they’d get their own back on their crowd, before Smith was bowled by Matthew Potts and the Fire innings began to lose its heat.
Fire fought their way to 143-9 from their 100 balls but Crawley, David Malan (41) and Brook (25*) made light work of the chase – knocking off the runs with 11 balls to spare.
Brook signalled his arrival at the crease with a first-ball six over mid-off and his innings brought plenty of cheer to the Headingley crowd, who on this performance may have plenty to celebrate across The Hundred this season.
Meerkat Match Hero Zak Crawley said: “I loved it. The boys are great, and coming here with Freddie – the guy’s a legend. It’s a great place to play your cricket and an awesome wicket to bat on, so I loved it.
“It felt a really good wicket for us to bat on and the outfield was rapid so the game-plan for us was to play strong shots, and it came off. The boys kept them to a really good total with the ball, and we felt like we could chase that and it was a good performance.
“I felt like me and Dawid complemented each other quite nicely, we hit in different areas, so that was good. And obviously the skipper came in and does what he does. He’s a proper player so that made it easy for me at the end.
“The bowlers got us off to a great start. They’ve got a couple of top players at the top for them but we managed to take regular wickets, which is what we talked about before the game, and the boys did brilliantly to keep them to 140-odd and that was very chaseable.”
Match Summary
Northern Superchargers vs Welsh Fire, Match 3
Northern Superchargers (Men) 147/2 (89 balls)
Welsh Fire (Men) 143/9 (100 balls)
Northern Superchargers (Men) won by 8 wickets
SCORECARD
Partnership
On debut for Northern Superchargers ??#TheHundred pic.twitter.com/Ee35A1BNKO
— The Hundred (@thehundred) August 7, 2025
Match Stats
Northern Superchargers Fall of wickets: 1-62 (Steven Smith – 7.2 ov), 2-62 (Luke Wells – 7.3 ov), 3-78 (Jonny Bairstow – 8.4 ov), 4-99 (Tom Abell – 12.2 ov), 5-102 (Tom Kohler-Cadmore – 13.3 ov), 6-125 (Paul Walter – 16.4 ov), 7-132 (Saif Zaib – 17.3 ov), 8-133 (David Payne – 17.5 ov), 9-133 (Chris Green – 18.2 ov)
Welsh Fire Fall of wickets: 1-91 (Dawid Malan – 10.2 ov), 2-100 (Michael-Kyle Pepper – 12.2 ov)
Wagon Wheel
Playing XI
Northern Superchargers
Welsh Fire
Match Details:
Date: Thursday, August 7, 2025 18:30
Venue: Headingley, Leeds
Toss: Northern Superchargers (Men) elected to bowl
Umpires: David Millns (England) James Middlebrook (England) Nigel Llong (England TV)
Match Referee: Dean Cosker (England)
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